Fact or Fiction? James Franco Writes Strange, Sad Story About Lindsay Lohan

They say truth is stranger than fiction, but which is it when it comes to the short story James Franco just wrote about Lindsay Lohan?

In a stream-of-conscious writing titled "Bungalow 89" that the actor and author penned for Vice, Franco, 36, writes about the night Lohan, 27, knocked on his door while he was staying at the Chateau Marmont.

Franco – who has denied having sex with the actress after his name was found on her leaked list of alleged sexual conquests – allowed Lohan to enter upon the condition that instead of having sex, he would read her J.D. Salinger stories.

The piece is featured in Vice's new "fiction issue," but Franco appears to blur the line between imagination and reality, interspersing snippets of conversation, real-life events and musings on fame.

At one point he refers to Lohan as "our fictional Hollywood girl, Lindsay." He then describes her as "a talented child actress" who is now "famous because she gets into trouble."

Writes Franco:

"My phone rang. She let it ring until I answered."

"You're not going to let me sleep, are you?"

"Do you think this is me? Lindsay Lohan. Say it. Say it, like you have ownership. It's not my name anymore."

"Lindsay Lo–han."

"I just want to sleep on your couch. I'm lonely."

"We're not going to have sex. If you want to come in, I'll read you a story."

"A bedtime story?"

"It's called 'A Perfect Day for Bananafish.' "

"Do you think I've created this? This dragon girl, lion girl, Hollywood hellion, terror of Sunset Boulevard, minor in the clubs, Chateau Demon? Do you think this is me?"

Franco's essay – which ping-pongs throughout his career, including meeting Gus Van Sant and River Phoenix – also details the premiere night of Prairie Home Companion, Lohan's film with Meryl Streep and Robert Altman, when he again refuses to have sex with her, and she relays the sad, strange story of "the best night" of her life that includes drinking, drugs and sex with a Greek man.

Mostly, however, Franco's essay seems a cautionary tale about Hollywood, youth and excess.

"I dreamed about vampires, and a voice came to me. It was a demon," Franco writes. "The demon said, 'I live on the power of celebrity, and I am a celebrity. I am the power bestowed on people like you by all the myriad reflectors of your celebrity … You are immortal and live on forever, on the screen and in the minds of the peoples.' "